UTA urges visits to shops hurt by work on extension of TRAX

The Utah Transit Authority has started an advertising campaign this week to encourage people to visit downtown businesses affected by construction of a TRAX extension to the Salt Lake Intermodal Hub.

The ads will run on the radio and in Salt Lake City Weekly. Money for the campaign will come from $125,000 that UTA has set aside to "mitigate" for construction costs, spokesman Chad Saley said. Some of the money has already been used to build a parking lot at 600 West and 200 South for people who can't park near the affected businesses, he said.

The ads will run periodically until April 2008, when the hub extension opens.

"It hurts when you've got construction crews in front of your business and you don't have street parking," Saley said. "This is just one of the things we've been trying to do."

UTA's Intermodal Hub is located between 200 South and 300 South and along 600 West. The agency began construction this January and has torn up roads running from the Arena Station on South Temple, south along 400 West and along 200 South.